Tell us, how did it all start and how hard was it to establish a metal management in Denmark ?
Claus - Intromental started out when I left Metalized Magazine. I knew I wanted to do something within the metal business (even if I have a university education in a completely different field), but wasn’t really sure what it should be. So I toyed around with the idea of making a magazine of my own or perhaps a record label. Well, the magazine thing would just be too stupid considering I would be competing with my former employee, and the record label would be too expensive to start up from scratch, so eventually the choice fell on the management. At first a lot of people I knew just laughed at me and didn’t think it would go anywhere. But that just made me fight even more for it. I think the hardest part about was actually finding the right guys to work together with at the office – a lot of people have been coming and going here, but most of them did it out of “fun” and love of the metal music without having any knowledge of the business behind it all. It can become very frustrating to meet a brick-wall every time you try to push something through, and most of the guys just stopped at Intromental after a while. But the team I have around me now are awesome, and especially my main-partner at the company, Lars F. Larsen, is irreplaceable.  

Why did you create IntroMental – what’s the concept behind it?
Claus - The concept behind Intromental is basically to assist bands in achieving the ultimate goal – get a record deal, see their albums get out in the stores, being seen in the media and to go on tours. There are many ways to reach that goal, but what we do is full-band support from helping to chose studios and producers, shopping their albums to labels, working over the contracts with the labels, assist with artwork/layout, get the promotional copies into the hands of the journalists, arranging interviews/reviews/airplay, internet promotion, booking single-gigs, festivals and tours, supplying a tour manager if necessary etc.  

You know, it all differs from band to band what they need at certain stages in their career, but my preference is to find a newcomer band and just build them up from there – that way we get around all the aspects mentioned above, and the band can see the growth along with the things happening. It’s a bit more difficult when you take on a band that’s already established, ‘cause they have their ideas of how it should be, which not necessarily are in sync with reality.  

Who came up with the name, and is there some special story behind it?
Claus - I think I came up with the name myself, but to be honest I can’t even remember… we toyed around with different ideas for the name, but when we figured out what it actually is we’re doing (introducing the music mentally to the people) then it just came to us.  

Besides, I’ve always loved those Helloween albums with the intro’s named “Initiation”, “Invitation” etc, which is just another way of welcoming the listener to the experience they are about to get, so “Intromental” sort of had that ring to it :-)  

Who was your first signing? And what do you consider to be your biggest success (not necessary band-wise)?
Claus - I had one or two smaller bands I was working with on the side, but the first real band I started out with was Wuthering Heights. It’s kind of fun to think that 9 years later the band is still here with us :-) In many ways I’ll also say that Wuthering Heights is our biggest success, not sales-wise, but due to the fact that we’ve struggled hard to get them where they are now, and it’s only been going upwards with each album. When they finished their first album, their record label said “no thanks, that’s not what we had expected”, so we had to find them a new deal. It all worked out in the end, the album was re-recorded, got released and since then we’ve been working on building them from album to album. That’s a band that holds a special place in my heart. But to be fair, all the bands we have holds a place of their own with me, and all of those we have now are bands I personally love to listen to. I wouldn’t sign a band whose music I didn’t love. From a “sales-success” point of view it’s of course bands such as Astral Doors and Communic that are at the top, as those bands are becoming quite well-known in the worldwide metal scene. I’m really proud of those 2, as they are bringing a lot of attention to the management, creating lots of waves and at the same time are very easy to work with. Also Manticora is a band that we’re happy to work with for several reasons (of course Lars being in the band helps haha) :-) Honestly; I could keep on mentioning all our bands, as success isn’t measured on sales alone, but also their will to keep on fighting for what they believe in and achieving their goals step by step.  

If you compare the early days with today – what is the biggest difference? Is it easier today, or is it still an every day struggle?
Claus - I guess I was more care-free back then. It was all just fun and games, and although there was a serious aspect to it all, I never saw it as a business. Today the business side takes up 99% of the time, and also costs us a lot of worries.  

You know, I’m probably not really cut out for this business, ‘cause I’ve got a conscience, haha – a lot of people in this business gets by with cheating, making undercover-deals, and even stealing. It’s incredible how many times I’ve seen labels delivering sales-statements that nowhere fits with the truth, and how many times I’ve seen people run away from what the contracts they’ve signed actually says. I’m doing this the “clean way”, and it also means that we almost every week have these rude awakenings, where we just look at each other in disbelief over how stupid some people really are when they cheat or steal, and hope to get by. In some way I guess my “nice-guy” attitude also makes me more vulnerable to being at the receiving end of a fraud. I mean, I’ve unfortunately too often had bands running away from their promises once we’ve gotten them to a certain point. In the past couple of years I’ve had 4-5 bands just leaving their bill with me with no intention of ever paying me. That also makes it necessary to put on the business face, and when signing new bands I have to be more cautious and hard. If the bands don’t agree with the terms I set up, well then they are free not to sign with me – it’s their choice.  

You’ve grown from a one-man company to 6 guys now – and in the beginning the personal relation to the bands was important. Is it still possible to keep a personal connection to all of your bands, or has it become more a professional relation now with all of your bands?
Claus - Of course the personal connection is still important and it’s still possible, but there also have to be the difference between band and management. I mean, we want to be able to sit down and have a beer and have some good fun with the bands, but we also need to make sure they see us as a professional unit that they can rely upon. If the band just see us as a sixth member, then they might loose the confidence in us – whereas if we show them that we are professional, they know that they can trust us with their business decisions.  

As you mentioned we are 6 guys (well, actually only 5 as our old webmaster Erik is more or less out of the picture nowadays), and each of us have their own field to take care of. Rene is in charge of the promotion department, with Benjamin and Martin helping him there. Besides that Rene also works as tour manager. Lars is in charge of our economy and our booking. Between me and Lars the daily contact with the bands is placed. And I guess I’m in charge of the rest (the stuff with labels and contracts – the internet – and so on). But overall, all of us knows how to jump in and help with the other things. By having this setup it also allows us to cover nicely for each other and in situations where one or two guys are on vacation, the management still continues the way it should.  

You offer a “whole” package to all of your new bands – website, booking, promotion, media contact etc, but it’s still important to be “a family” member – why is this so important?
Claus - I guess it’s the “old-school-metal-mentality” shining through, he he… basically the “family” thing is our way of saying that we want our bands to be able to talk together, help out with gigs, gear, endorsement, etc – the more the bands learn to use each other, the better things flow along. I’ve always felt that this metal scene is all about camaraderie and supporting each other. I remember back in the late eighties we went to all kinds of local concerts and bought demos with bands we didn’t even like, just to support them and make the scene grow, and I guess this feeling is still somewhere inside of me… that you have to support each other to get anywhere. You can’t really make it on your own – you need to have friends behind you. And if our bands can have some kind of friendship going among each other, then it’ll be much easier for them and for us. An example; one band is booked to play a gig and a few weeks before one of the guys have to cancel due to him being really ill or whatever – since our bands know each other, they might be able to call up one of the other guys in another Intromental band and have him jump in to help them out at that gig, without his own band getting upset about it. Or, in a situation where a band needs to buy new equipment, they ask one of the other bands about advice on where to get it cheap and which equipment would be the best.  

Have you ever considered creating a festival to promote your bands?
Claus - Sure! I’ve thought about it a lot of times, but it’s really difficult to do here in Denmark – first of all a lot of our bands are foreign, and to get them all here would be quite expensive. Besides, where would we have it? I don’t really see a suitable club for such a festival in Denmark, and I’m not even sure if the audience for it is here… But who knows, one day I might do it.  

Do you have co-operation deals with certain record companies, promoters, album cover artists etc – or are you totally independent?
Claus - We have our usual people we contact first when we need promotion of our albums (most of the time it’s True Music in Germany), for artwork (we’ve worked a lot with Mattias Norén/ProgArt Media in Sweden or Chris Kallias in Switzerland), for tours (usually Dragon Productions, Contra Promotion, Henry Klaere or Noisegate Productions – all German companies), merchandise (Metal Merchant, Merch Concept Team or Print Palace) and so on. But we’re an independent company and we chose ourselves who we want to work with – it’s all about choosing the right person for the job.  

Is IntroMental a full-time job, part-time – or is it strictly a volunteer based effort?
Claus - It’s most definitely a full-time job for me. I work at least 12-15 hours a day on the management, also on weekends. In fact, I haven’t had a real vacation in the past 6 years – the only times I’m away it’s on business (be it festivals, tours, meetings, in the studio with bands or so on). The thing is, when you’re running your own company you can’t “afford” to take time out to relax. I’ve always got my phone with me, even if I’m visiting friends or family, and the bands can call me day or night if they need to.  

The future – what is the limit, would you like the company to grow even bigger?
Claus - My philosophy has always been that with each year that goes by, your company has to grow bigger and give higher revenue. One way to do that is to hire more people, work with more bands, arrange some bigger tours, have more releases or whatever – but it also has to make sense, in the way that we wouldn’t take on more job or workload if we don’t have the capacity for it. We’re 5 guys now, and we can’t work with a hundred bands, right? We have our limit, wherever that is, haha – it’s a balance thing, you know.  

How do you feel about the state of the metal scene at the moment?
Claus - It’s a difficult question – on one hand I’m really happy about the way metal is getting exposure in the media again (be it thanks to Lordi, Osbourne show, MTM-fabricated nu-metal or whatever), as it brings a lot of people who’d never listen to real heavy metal into the scene. But at the same time it’s also discouraging to see the labels fight an uneven battle every day which most of them are bound to loose. You see, the labels keep on signing a billion bands, and there’s a billion releases each month – but it’s not because all those bands deserves it, it’s simply for the sake of the labels having a flow of releases in order to satisfy their distributors, or to make a quick cash flow. Labels aren’t selling as much as they used to of each title, so in order to keep the income up, they need more releases… thus, and they sign more bands. The reasons for the lower sales are multiple, but one of the most important ones (in my opinion) is the illegal downloading taking place. I could go on for hours with this subject, as I despise the downloader’s that much… Illegal downloading kills good music!  

Thank you very much for participating in this interview and sharing this information and your thoughts with us - these last lines are entirely for you. Any final words you would like to round off with - a tip, a recommendation or a thought for the future…
Claus - For the bands out there, keep on fighting for what you believe in, and sooner or later your dreams will come through. Find someone who knows the business to help you (a lawyer, a manager, a booking agent), and before you know it the world is yours ;-)  

Thank you Kenn for the interview – it’s been really interesting trying to put my thoughts down on paper, and I really appreciate the interest your showing in Intromental and our bands.  

Claus Jensen
Managing director
Intromental Management

Interviewed by Kenn Jensen